entranceway | Astral Destruction

[ Clementine and Mae appear on the screen. It’s a little girl and a cat girl. They’re standing in a room on the first floor. Clem has a crowbar in her hand, slung over her shoulder. Mae has her trusty baseball bat and a very cat-that-got-the-canary grin on her face.]

Hey, so… Mae told me about how she breaks shit sometimes and how it’s… cathartic? [ that’s the word she used, right? ] And I tried it with a light bulb. It felt pretty damn awesome so we thought it might be cool to have an official place where people could break stuff whenever they needed to deal with bullshit.

[Mae immediately picks up the thread, grinning wide.]

So we are super effing pleased to introduce…The Destruction Room.

[She pans the camera over to the sign on the door. It’s generic and straight to the point. Then she pans the camera around to take in the room. There’s rows of shelves filled with china plates, vases, glass figurines and other fragile-looking items. Along the walls are dozens of light fixtures and free-standing lamps, as well as just a metric ton of lightbulbs, both fluorescent and incandescent. All of it is very precariously displayed and it looks like it wouldn’t take much to just knock some of these shelves right over.]

Isn’t it amazing? We stocked it with everything that could possibly go smash.

[Clementine gestures then to have Mae pan the camera toward the wall on the side which has a giant weapon rack with every blunt weapon imaginable from bats to maces to hammers and more. ]

Over on this wall, we’ve got every blunt weapon you can think of so you can really make the breakables crack into a hundred awesome pieces. Also, it’s on the first floor, room 4 so if you hit yourself in the foot or get glass stuck in your arm or something, the clinic’s right next door.

Yeah, we pretty much thought of everything. Because we’re awesome.

[Mae holds out her hand to Clementine for a high-five. Clementine leans over, high fiving her back, with a smile. Totally awesome. ]

Anyway, yeah, come on down and get your smash on. Work out some of that pre-event anxiety or whatever.

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[Anything that would help get out all of those feelings. He was okay with any method as long as it didn't hurt her or hurt anyone else.

He wondered though too how he handled dealing with things like that.]

I stay with friends. Sometimes you can just be in the same room as someone and you don't have to talk. Just know that they're there.

[Since Minato didn't really talk too much. He liked to keep things close, but sometimes perhaps too close to himself.]

( Clementine grows quiet, glancing down as she thinks about what he says and what that means. She doesn't know if she really has that with anyone. It's hard to completely trust anyone else. )

You'd have to be really close to someone in order to share the silence with them like that and find comfort just in them being there.

And it helps?

[Minato knew that it was hard to find that someone too. Even when he was with some of his closest friends, he knew some of them would just go on and on without any room for silence.]

It does, if you're not ready to talk. But you know they'll be there to listen when you really are ready.

[It might not be very conventional though, his method of how he dealt with shit.]

What else have you tried that hasn't worked?

[That way they could find a way that did work.]

Not... much. No one ever teaches you what to do to deal with all that shit. Mostly, I just tried to act like I wasn't- I wasn't feeling any of it.

( Clementine frowns, staring down, as she- as she tries to think over the rest. )

I tried drinking. It makes things kinda numb, but it also makes you feel weird.

[No one ever told Minato had to deal with it either. Going numb seemed reasonable enough and he could understand that. Well, drinking didn't work, but she did try it, at least. She was trying.]

I think people tell you not to feel it so one, you don't worry about it and two, they don't have to worry about it either.

[That was really selfish of them too.]

That makes sense.

But even if you don't worry about it, it's still there. It doesn't just go away. I wish it did.

( Clementine would prefer to never have to deal with the feelings in her chest, but- It doesn't work like that. She tried it already, and they snuck up on her. )

[Minato could also understand that. There were things he would like to forget too.]

Time doesn't heal wounds, it just numbs them. It'll stay, but maybe it's there so when it happens again, it won't be such a surprise.

[So history didn't repeat itself. It was like armor that slowly grew stronger and thicker after time. He didn't want to sound so pessimistic, but he couldn't sound too idealistic either since that wasn't realistic.]

Like it gets easier the more times you feel it?

Yeah. It does. It has to. Your heart can only feel so much at once-

( A person can get used to anything if they're exposed to it often enough. Clementine breathes out through her teeth then, shaking her head. She appreciates the realism. Anything too optimistic she can't- can't really believe anyway. )

[Minato nodded. It had to and he knew what it was like to just feel it over and over again until it was like... been there, done that. Not that it felt good though.]

It gets easier to deal with it. Sometimes it's okay to put it away and not think about it, if it's too much.

[Not that that was easy either. But being too strong wasn't good for anyone.]

If you want someone to listen or talk to though, then I'll be here for you.

Yeah, I think so too. People have to move forward. Sometimes that means putting things away.

( Sometimes that means shelving it, coming back to it later or- or never coming back to it at all. She smiles then and nods. )

Thank you. If you want that, I'm here too.

Thanks. I'll take you up on that some time.

[For some reason, he felt comfortable enough around her to be able to just do that, just to sit and talk or listen, and he wasn't the type to talk much if he didn't want to or have to. But being a little vulnerable around her seemed okay, like it was safe.

He smiled too in return, and did want to lighten up the mood too since she looked ready for it.]

I could meet you now to go smash stuff. It'll be fun.

[And of course, an awesome way to take out whatever it was that he felt.]

( Clementine smiles softly at the thought anyone could take her up on that simply because she's- she's offered. It means he doesn't think she's just a kid, just someone who wouldn't get it. She laughs finally at the offer. )

Sounds good. I'm here in the Destruction Room, ready to smash some shit.

It'll be a lot of fun.

Thanks. I'll be there.

[Minato was so ready to get his smash on, as Mae would put it. It didn't take him long either to get up and out of his room to go meet her so that smashing could start sooner rather than later.]

Astral Destruction

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